Chapter 2089 — Chapter 2089 Everyone's contributions

"So much for only contributing small secrets," Ballom muttered to himself, though he didn't mind the higher activation level of the pillar. However, it seemed that after the rapid rise in activation levels, it became increasingly harder to elevate the activation level of the pillar.

No one else threw any bombshells like the Innkeeper or Eclipse, so the color of the rod barely changed. Even Wu Kong, who was tempted to throw out a scandal or two, restrained himself. The purpose of this round was to see how low level secrets affected the pillar. Now, for the sake of reference, they had a couple of massive secrets as well so they knew how to compare them.

The issue was, all the Dao Lords, including Ventura, provided secrets that affected one or two Dao Lords at most, and the pillar activation barely moved. In fact, it took some pretty insane secrets that affected the entire universe to bring the pillar all the way to level three. From the looks of it, unless they wanted to contribute their biggest, gravest secrets then it would be more or less impossible to continue to activate the pillar.

A deafening silence filled the garden once everyone was done as all the Dao Lords reflected on their options and what they wanted to do. They had no idea how good or bad the third activation level was.

"If we leave the pillar as it is," said Bridget, looking towards Harriot, "then what kind of secret or souvenir can we expect? How much better will the reward be at the next level?"

Only when they understood those things could they make an informed

decision. However, if he told that, then he would remove all the suspense from the activity.

"You just have to take a gamble," Harriot responded. "If you feel that this is sufficient then you can let it be. Or maybe you can take a leap of faith, contribute something and hope that others contribute as well. Or maybe you can all make a deal and make contributions together, just as you did before. What reward you get, good or bad, is in your hands. The uncertainty is what makes this interesting."

It was true - for Dao Lords, such uncertainty was a novel, or at least fairly novel experience. Lex was somewhat hoping that no one else would contribute any more secrets, or else he might need to as well. But since all he could do for now was wait, he turned his gaze towards the pillar. Or, more specifically, towards the base of the pillar that was emerging from the portal.

It seemed to Lex that a majority of the structure was still hidden behind the portal, and that the Enigma Pillar was only a small part of something far greater. He could not help but wonder what it was.

"In moments like this, we should make things clear to one another," said Ballom. "Let's do this. All those who are satisfied with the state of the pillar stand on one side, and all those who wish that the activation level was higher, or still wish to contribute, stand on the other side. We can take things from there." Now, things started to get interesting. About 40% were satisfied with the current activation level, and 60% wanted to raise it higher. But when Ballom asked about those who still had things they could contribute, very few stood out. It seemed that a majority were hoping that the Innkeeper, or perhaps Eclipse would make another major contribution.

Yet neither the Innkeeper, nor Eclipse made any move to contribute further, leaving them to decide what to do. Naturally, the next person they looked to was Ventura.

"Do not expect any charity from me. I am not like the Innkeeper or Eclipse who believe in hospitality. If you want something from me, make your own donations first. I will contribute according to the median level of the secret contributed."

Many Dao Lords grumbled, but they only did so internally. It seemed that if they really wanted to seek better rewards, they needed to pay up. But the fact that only some of them would contribute but all of them would reap the benefits did not sit right with them.

The Dao Lords began discussing amongst themselves, trying to think of ways in which to make the situation fair. Lex, meanwhile, took the opportunity to study his karmic string some more.

In the end, it took nearly an hour before they reached some kind of solution, and even that solution was reached through a mix of persuasion and threatening to leave the activation level as it was.

In the end, it was decided that a few key players would donate significant secrets. Those were the ones who really wanted the activation level to go higher. Everyone else, meanwhile, would contribute at least one, and preferably two insignificant secrets. After all, they would be benefiting from the rise in activation level, and a total lack of contribution could earn some ire.

While the karmic bond said that none of them could use what they learned today to harm one another, that did not prevent them from targeting each other in different ways.

Thus, Lex ended up learning a bunch of random facts about many Dao Lords he'd never heard of before. For example, there was a Dao Lord who had a hobby of pretending to be an old man and passing out random cultivation techniques to kids from various races and then watching how much a simple yet powerful technique ends up helping them. So far, it turned out that mere access to powerful cultivation techniques was not enough to turn any random person into a top level powerhouse.

He also learned about some truly, genuinely evil Dao Lords who liked to torture and sacrifice countless souls just to run experiments. Since it was too difficult to deal with Dao Lords, they were generally just ignored and left alone. There were a bunch of small and petty conspiracies that were unveiled as well about how, to target other Dao Lords, some Dao Lords actually caused entire races to be engulfed in war.

Lex suddenly felt like he was having a flashback. He was reminded of Jeffery back on Earth. He used to consider himself above the mortals on earth, so he used to play all sorts of games with them just to watch the outcome. The difference was that these beings were genuinely too powerful to be stopped, and their reach was also infinitely greater.

Eventually, though, it was time for the bigger secrets, revealed by some of the more prominent characters. As it turned out, Hiran Kokan decided to go first.

"Recently, the Henali has discovered that our previous understanding of the Void may be incorrect, Hiran said slowly, carefully selecting each word so as to not reveal too little or too much. "Previously, we used to think that the Void was absent of all things - including a majority of the laws. It was considered to be an existence with the most basic and minimum number of laws, keeping it as a part of the universe itself. Now... we are beginning to suspect that the Void contains its own set of rules - rules that we may have never discovered before. The reason for that was a certain discovery. I won't go into details, but I will say that we confirmed that the Void managed to reconstruct a certain, high level item that was confirmed to be destroyed early in the Enlightenment Age." He did not reveal too much, but the impact of his words was great, and not just on the Pillar. The pale light on it began to brighten, but most weren't paying attention to it. If the Void could recreate lost or destroyed treasures, then many myths and legends that had been lost to time could return!

The question, then, was how long it took for such a recovery to happen? What were the required circumstances? What was the base level of the treasure required? Was it even limited to treasures, or could the Void restore anything?

Seeing that Hiran had gone first, and even contributed so greatly, the Primal stepped forward.

"I am not at liberty to say too much, however, certain financial movements and liquidation of assets of some of our partners at the bank suggest that... one or two Sage races may be preparing to enter the ongoing war under their own terms and conditions."

The pillar started to shine even brighter, while many Dao Lords became extremely troubled. This was incredible news! Unfortunately, they could not share it back with their organisations!

Wu Kong, unwilling to be left behind, stepped forward.

"A good samaritan once relayed to me, of his own volition, that certain forces have theorised a shortcut to growing and maturing ones Dao rapidly. I won't go into details, but it involves using a Major realm."

On the surface, it seemed like Wu Kong had said nothing, but in reality, he may have touched upon the key reasons behind this ongoing war.

All the attending Dao Lords. Eclipse included, suddenly paid a tremendous amount of attention to Wu Kong's words. A shortcut to maturing ones Dao had never been discovered before. If it was truly proven to exist, then the scale of the ongoing war was going to increase by a lot.